Top 5 Pop Culture Horses
For this month’s silly article, I will be ranking the top 5 horses in Pop Culture! Let’s get right into it…
5. Budweiser Clydesdales
The highlight of the Super Bowl every year is the annual Budweiser commercial featuring some adorable bay Clydesdale(s) overcoming some kind of adversity (often involving collaboration with a dog). Each and every year they produce a cinematic masterpiece which pulls at your heartstrings and makes you want to cry, smile, and believe that all the world is inherently good. As I’m typing this I pulled up a few Budweiser Clydesdale ads and I cried at every single one of them. These horses (albeit fictitiously), demonstrate empathy and compassion, and pay homage to their ancestors and owners. They collaborate to achieve their goals, rescue stray puppies, befriend donkeys, help each other believe in themselves, pull pranks, play games, bond so deeply with their caretakers that they run down city blocks to find them years later, and they even scheme to set up the farmer with the hot blonde neighbor. They’re truly iconic and I am regretting putting them as number 5 on the list as I am still crying watching more of these ads…
4. Rocking Horses
This one might seem out of left field, but hear me out - rocking horses have been one of the most popular toddler / small child toys for centuries. Who didn’t have, or know someone who had, a rocking horse as a kid? They have been around since the 1600s and are one of the most longstanding toys to exist. Today they come in all shapes, sizes, materials, and price points. Rocking horses have many physical benefits to children including helping to develop core strength, balance, hand grip, and coordination - not to mention the calming nature of the rocking motion. Rocking horses are the precursor to many young girls’ horse obsession, which eventually turns into full blown horse girl syndrome (which to me, is a very beautiful thing). They make it onto this list on sheer staying power, and in 2026 I think they have a very cutesy vintage flare about them as well. If you invite me to your baby’s first birthday party I will be showing up with a rocking horse, thank me later!!
3. “Horses Don’t Stop They Keep Going”
The most famous misheard lyric-turned-meme is also one of the world’s greatest pop culture horse references. Young Thug’s song Digits starts with the famous line “Hustlers don’t stop they keep going, you could lose your life but they gonna keep going.” the word “hustlers” is sung in a way that sounds more like “horses” and inspired many fans to get “Horses don’t stop they keep going” tattoos, and millions of ensuing memes. (Some of my favorites are the memes of horses pumping iron or performing manual labor, or horses themselves getting “horses don’t stop they keep going” tattoos.) One fan of the song got a full back tattoo with the “misheard” lyric and a trio of hyperreal galloping wild horses (pictured here). (This guy claims he used the “misheard” lyric on purpose, which I tend to believe. If my back wasn’t already heavily inked I would consider getting that one myself.) “Horses don’t stop they keep going” has been a live reference for like 10 years already, so it’s been a very powerful mainstream horse reference. It really paints horses as motivational and aspirational beings, which I love! When my horse gives me any resistance, I calmly remind him that horses don’t stop, they keep going, and he always behaves after that.
2. The Horse from Old Town Road
It’s March 2019. You’ve never heard of COVID and you’re watching the Fyre Festival documentary while trying to figure out how an egg got more IG likes than Kylie Jenner… when suddenly across all social media platforms and radio stations you cannot escape Billy Ray Cyrus’s southern drawl paired with Lil Nas X’s raspy bars. The epic collaboration that no one was expecting. The famous chorus, “I’m gonna take my horse to the Old Town Road, I’m gonna ride till I can’t no more,” and the bridge, “Can’t nobody tell me nothing, you can’t tell me nothin’,” will be forever ingrained in our heads. Old Town Road was a pioneer Country Trap song that quite literally (this explains how clean the floors are in America) swept the nation in early 2019. The song still holds the record for most weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (19!) and was the subject of many memes, trends, and TikTok challenges. Most importantly, it put cowboy culture and horses back into the limelight. The American people wanted to embody the Old Town Road aesthetic. Every boy and girl across the land dreamed of taking his or her horse down to the Old Town Road and riding, well, until they couldn’t anymore. This was a big and necessary boost in horse popularity, and the national interest in cowboy culture has been holding strong ever since. We as horse people owe a great debt of gratitude to the theoretical Old Town Road horse, widely considered the coolest horse of all time (with no argument from me). Nobody can deny this song is a classic and our grandchildren’s grandchildren will still be singing along.
Trojan Horse
Sheerly based on name recognition, the Trojan Horse takes the cake for the most iconic horse in pop culture. The Trojan Horse incident took place in 1200 BC and is generally considered a myth (although there’s no tangible proof that it didn’t actually happen). There are a bunch of different interpretations of the story, but essentially the Greeks were engaged in a War with the Trojans and the Greeks were down bad. As a Hail Mary attempt to infiltrate Troy, they gifted the Trojans a massive wooden horse as a “Congrats on beating us!” gift. They didn’t mention that the horse was chock full of soldiers waiting to attack Troy. The Trojans- full of themselves- fell for this hook, line, and sinker and welcomed their giant gift horse (horse pun) through the gates of the city, unwittingly letting an army of Greek soldiers inside along with it! The Greeks decimated Troy and that was that… Even if it’s entirely fabricated, it’s still an extremely fun story and has been the inspiration for millions and millions of other stories, artwork, songs, and strategies for literally the last 3,000 years. So yeah, just based on longevity, we’re giving Trojan Horse the W today.
